Complementary
by voider
Summary: Taylor spends more time in the locker, gets worse injuries and has an earlier introduction to the cape world.
1. Preparation 1-0

**Complementary**.

**Summary**: Taylor spends more time in the locker, gets worse injuries and has an earlier introduction to the cape world.

**Pairing**: Skitter/Panacea

**Standard Disclaimer**: Worm belongs to Wildbow.

Check out his works - Worm (google: wildbow worm) and Pact (his new web serial)

**x-x-x**

**Preparation 1.0**.

**x-x-x**

I stared at the small swarm of flies as they swarmed in formation around my room. It was strange, I could control each individual insect without a problem... and not only the ones in front of me. I could feel all insects within a radius of about three blocks. They were all extensions of my will.

The amount of multitasking I was now capable, was mind boggling. Even more so than the fact that I was now a cape.

At least the day I spent in that fucking locker was useful for something.

"Taylor?"

I twitched and glanced at the opening door, while at the same time I threw the flies out of their formation and into hidden places. The nurse smiled motherly at me and a girl in a white hooded robe with a red cross on her chest nodded at me absently while glancing around the room. Damn, does she suspect anything? I should have reacted to the intrusion earlier and the nurse should have knocked before entering. I made the flies land out of sight. People don't pay any attention to insects, so even if they saw them, it should be fine. "Yes," I rasped.

"This is Panacea," the nurse said with a mix of reverence and respect, as if she was introducing me to Legend. "She has agreed to look at you."

I looked at the freckled girl and nodded slowly. Panacea was widely acknowledged as one of the greatest healers in the world. A nurse as nice as her would definitely respect someone like the healer. From what I knew, her healing was freely given. "Thank you," I said and tried to smile. Instead, I grimaced in pain.

"You can take a break, Jane," the healer nodded at the nurse. I'll see you at the cafeteria after I'm done with miss Hebert."

"Of course," the nurse gave the healer a small nod and withdrew, leaving me alone with the girl.

She approached my bed, looking over my injuries.

"I guess I must look like a mummy," I joked. While in the locker, I've gotten some nasty bites and stings from all the bugs. Going crazy and trying to break the door caused additional problems: broken and fractured bones, and more scrapes. Every injury, of course, got infected. All of this caused me to be bandaged all over. The worst thing: I couldn't even go to the bathroom because I was immobilized in this bed.

Panacea shrugged and looked at my file. "Looks like surface damage only. It should be easy to fix. Do I have your permission to heal you?"

I blinked in surprise. "Of course. Are there people who don't want you to heal them?"

"It can happen," she shrugged. "Only a couple of times, but it did in the past with me and other healers. The PRT have us ask this every time the patient is able to consent. This way, the people I heal can't sue me."

"Well, you have my consent. Do I have to do anything?"

The healer shook her head. "Only to give me your hand."

I did, and Panacea closed her eyes. "Multiple lacerations coupled with some nasty infections. Multiple insect bites. Throat infection. Broken fingers. Multiple fractures to your hands and legs. And a few other things. Hmm, interesting." She paused and stared at me. "There, all done."

I blinked, suddenly feeling much better. My vision was really strange though.

Panacea took a seat on the edge of the bed, leaned towards me and took off my glasses. "Oh, and I fixed your eyes as well."

I blinked at the suddenly clear vision. "Wow." I glanced around the room and then at my hands. "There's so much more detail." I looked at her face and I could clearly see each individual freckle, whereas before I could see them as blots of colors that blurred into each other and the pale skin around them. Impulsively, I launched myself at her and gave her a hug. "Thank you," I said, trying not to cry.

The young healer closed her arms around me and patted me on the back. "You're welcome, Taylor."

I allowed myself to sink into the comfort of the embrace. When was the last time someone hugged me? Not since mom died. After she died, dad was always so distant, but then, so was I. But Emma - that treacherous bitch would hug me all the time. And then she betrayed and tormented me. I drowned in Panacea's comfort for a few more seconds and then withdrew. "Thank you, Panacea."

"That's all right," she said softly. "And you can call me Amy."

"Okay, Amy."

"Can... can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said.

"What happened?"

"I..." I shuddered at the horror of the memory. Amy put her hands around my right hand and squeezed gently. "At school, there are three girls. One of them was my best friend until two years ago, then she and the other two decided to make my life a living hell. Until now, it was generally always small stuff. Lots and lots of small stuff, until three days ago. They..." I took a shuddering breath to calm myself. "They filled my locker with all sorts of disgusting stuff, like used female hygiene products. The smell was so bad that I threw up inside it. And then, they pushed me inside and locked it. I could hear them laughing. Not only them, but all the other students. None of them raised a finger," I hissed in anger. "None of them came to help. None of them even told anyone. They could have given an anonymous call, but none did." I stopped and grinded my teeth in rage.

Amy squeezed my hand in encouragement.

"I was left there. I spent the night in that locker, screaming and throwing up, with bugs and insects crawling all over me, biting and stinging. I think I blacked out a few times, but the next morning I was still screaming to be let out. The janitor heard me and got me out. I don't remember much, but I came out screaming and biting."

Panacea smiled encouragingly and patted my hand. "At least it's all over, now."

"Ha," I laughed bitterly. "I wish."

The healer blinked in confusion. "Surely after what happened..."

"Nothing changed," I snarled at her and she flinched. "Sorry, I shouldn't take it out on you."

"It's all right," Amy smiled in encouragement.

"Dad talked with a lawyer. The school said that because I didn't actually see who pushed me in the locker and there were, apparently, no witnesses, there was nothing they could do. That it was a simple prank gone wrong. They would pay for the hospital bills only if we dropped this. It was made clear that if we don't let it go, they - the school and the bullies - will ruin us in court. The bullies are popular, rich and can afford to lawyer up. They'd make me the villain and them, the heroes. There's nothing we could do."

"But can't they transfer you to Arcadia at least?" Amy asked in disbelief. "I guarantee you that Arcadia does not tolerate bullying."

"The waiting list is huge for Arcadia. When I got into Winslow, I had the grades for Arcadia, easily, but now, they're not good enough. With all the shit, stress and sabotage that got dumped on me I couldn't get in. And apparently," I sneered in disgust, "transferring me would be seen as preferential treatment."

"But that's not fair."

I shrugged at her words. What can I do? "Don't worry, I'm used to it by now. I'll find a way to deal with it."

"You could just quit school," Amy said tentatively.

"What?"

"If it is as bad as you say, there's no point in staying," she explained. "I think you're smart enough to learn everything you need by yourself. If there's nothing holding you there, you can just leave, forget about it all."

"That's... actually a good idea," I said thoughtfully. "School isn't that hard for me. It's just that my homework, projects and attendance suffered because of Emma and her gang. If I didn't have to worry all the time about the bullying, I'd be able to actually learn something in classes. There's nothing positive that school brings that I can't do better by myself." Besides I thought with a flash of rage, If I keep going to school, I might end up killing those bitches. While they'd deserve it, I don't want to get sent to the Birdcage for killing them. They're not worth it.

Panacea seemed relieved at my words. "That's good. There's something else I want to talk about," she said biting her lower lip. "I want you to know beforehand that what we talk here, I'll never tell or imply to anyone else, no matter what. I only want to give you the information you need. There are rules about this - unwritten rules, but everybody follows them. If they don't, everybody turns against them."

I nodded worriedly. Does she know? She's one of the greatest healers in the world. If there's something different about capes, that can distinguish us from normal people, she'd definitely know.

Panacea hunched into herself, as if waiting to be attacked, but she still held my hand. "I know you are a parahuman," her words came rushed and her body froze, waiting to see how I reacted. What did she think I would do? Start something in the middle of the hospital? My eyes wondered from her eyes, which looked at me warily, to where our hands were joined together. I was now pretty sure that if I reacted badly the young healer would instantly put me to sleep. I don't know if she would still keep her promise about keeping quiet if I attacked her, but there was no reason for me to try anything. She was the only person who actually helped since my mother died.

"How?" I asked.

She looked away from me. "I can't heal brains," she said, "but I can examine them. You have a developed Corona Pollentia. All potential parahuman have that. You became a parahuman in that locker, right?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"That's called the Trigger Event. Given what it was, it's not surprising that you can control insects, maybe other life forms as well - simple ones. When I entered your room, there were some flies flying around, but they hid immediately when I entered. You can do it on a higher range as well, not limited to visual range."

"How do you know about the range?" I asked. I understood the other parts. Those were not hard to deduce, given the information she had. So, indirect information probably. "Oh. It's January, there aren't that many flies in hospitals and I couldn't have left the bed to collect them until now." Smart girl, I thought.

Amy nodded. "You should be careful. If a thinker sees that insects behave strangely around you, you might be discovered. In theory, heroes, villains and rogues never try to discover the civilian identities of capes. Being known for it will cause everybody to band against the rule breaker."

"But in practice," I realized, "they might not follow the unwritten rules if they thought they could get away with it."

"Yes. In the same way," the healer continued, "cape fights tend to not be fatal. For example: Uber and Leet will always get sent to a prison they can easily escape from, as long as they continue to not cause too much damage and refrain from killing. Powerful villains like Lung and Kaiser will get sent to the Birdcage if they are caught, but even if it is known that they killed, they haven't gone over a certain line, so they don't have a kill order on them. Generally, only the most dangerous villains have kill orders on them: like the Slaughterhouse 9."

"Is that because of the Endbringers?"

"Yes, Amy nodded. As long as the villains play ball when the Endbringers come and don't step too much over the line, they are tolerated. Due to the fact that villains outnumber heroes, the PRT and the Protectorate have to play ball with the villains as much as the villains have to play ball with the heroes."

"I'll be more careful."

"You know, there's another way out of your situation," Panacea said. "You could join the Wards. You'd get transferred to Arcadia."

I'd thought about that; but, do I want to get into another situation like Winslow? If they were like Amy, it might be fun. If they were like Emma, Sophia or Madison, I don't think I could take it. Home schooling sounded a lot more preferable, I could be free of them. This way, I'd be able to spend most of my time around my home. That made making a lair for my bugs a lot more feasible. "I'd like to be able to follow my own rules," I told Panacea. "I think I'll skip the Wards for now. I don't think I'm ready for more teenage drama. Maybe in the future, that will change, but for now, I just don't want to deal with all that."

I want first to train my abilities, maybe build a suit using spider silk. See if I can use my abilities produce something to sell to the PRT and Protectorate. If there's something this taught me, is that not having enough money is as bad as not having power. Until now, I had not cared too much about it, but now, I saw that not having enough money was a major disadvantage. If we had enough money, we wouldn't have had to settle with the school for my medical bills. Maybe then the police would have kept investigating and done something, discovered something. Maybe just the threat of possible future discovery would have made Emma back down. But like this, the bullies understood that they were never going to be punished.

"Good," said Panacea. "For now, try to stay away from... your bullies. This early after your Trigger Event, your powers may lack control. If you feel threatened you may hurt them by mistake, even kill them. You'd get sent to the Birdcage. It is better for everyone if you just forget about them."

"All right," I said. "They're not worth it."

Amy nodded and gave me a piece of paper with a number on it. "If you need to talk, give me a call."

I nodded at the girl, "Okay."

The healer patted my hand, stood up and sighed. "Well, It's time to get back to work. Stay safe, Taylor."

"I will. Thank you Amy. For everything."

After the healer left, I looked down at my form on the bed. I wonder when someone will come to get me out of these things.

**x-x-x**

**Author's Note**: I haven't been writing for some time, but reading Worm and Worm fanfiction made me want to start again. I've really wanted to write something about what would happen if Skitter and Panacea worked together, so here it is my own Worm fanfic: Complementary.


	2. Preparation 1-1

**Preparation 1.1**.

**x-x-x**

A few days later, I was eating dinner with my father. The silence between us was even more awkward than usual.

"So, Taylor, how was your day?" he asked.

"Great," I said. "I went for my morning run, then I spent most of the day at the library."

"Good," he nodded. "Good. You've kept up with your schoolwork?"

"No." I took a deep breath. It was time to let my father know a bit about my plans. "I'm not going back to school."

Danny looked pained at my words. "Taylor, I know that what happened was terrible, but sooner or later, you'll have to go back. They promised that nothing like what happened will happen again. The teachers will keep an eye on you. Now that they know that... you have problems with bullying, they have promised to take care of it. Things will get better."

Somehow, I doubted that the teachers didn't know what was up. Even if they did something now, it was only because if something like the locker happened again, they'd have a harder time dealing with the consequences toward the school.

"I've talked with Alan and he says that..."

I slammed my fist on the table. I still hadn't told my father anything about the particulars of what happened, but perhaps it was time to tell him about Emma. That'll shake him out of this notion of getting me back in school, and he'd know better than to speak or ask advice from that traitor's father.

"Dad," I said and took a deep breath. I can do this. "Emma is the one." At the look of confusion on his face, I added, "Emma is the one who was bullying me. Her and her two friends."

Dad gaped at me, his mind unable to reconcile with the new information. "But she's been your friend for years."

"Not anymore," I said. "Not for a year and a half. She found two new friends: Sophia and Madison, and a new hobby: to make my life a living hell. That's why I don't want to go back. The school did nothing; the students did nothing; I have no friends there. I don't trust the school to keep their word, not when it comes to Emma - the lawyer's daughter who does modeling, Sophia - the sports star and the rich cute Madison."

Danny lowered his head into his hands, not knowing what to say.

"That's why I'm not going back. To hell with them. I don't need them. I don't need that hell hole. I'd rather be homeschooled."

"Homeschooled?" Dad asked.

"Yes. That's what I've been doing at the library, I was researching it," I half-lied. "Getting homeschooled is pretty easy. You don't need any approvals from anyone. Just withdraw me and then I just have to pass the GED tests. Without all the problems I get at school, it will be much easier to study."

"All right," my dad sighed. "If you think it's for the best, we'll do that."

**x-x-x**

The next day, two hours before sunrise, I dressed, grabbed a few old wool socks and some cardboard, put them in my backpack, and then I went to the kitchen. I heated some water and had a light breakfast. When I was done eating, I confirmed that my dad was still sleeping before starting the work he would be suspicious of. I checked that the water was not too hot and poured a bit of the liquid in a mug. I poured sugar, let it dissolve and grabbed a roll of plastic bags. I split some of the pure water in ten plastic bags and put them in my backpack surrounded by the wool socks. When I was done with that, I stirred the sugar water until the sugar was dissolved, and then also split the sweetened liquid in another ten plastic bags.

The last thing I took before I left was a small gardening shovel.

Normally, I would have made my lair far away from my house. Unfortunately, my range extended only to nine hundred feet and I needed to be in contact with my swarm if I wanted to do something productive with them. That meant that if I wanted to make the most of my abilities, I needed the useful members of my swarm in the place I was spending most of my time. And that meant very close to home.

That is why I decided that the center of my lair would be close to where I lived, close enough that I could order my swarm from my room, where I couldn't make anyone suspicious even if something brought attention to my lair. There was a dilapidated house a hundred feet from my house, so I decided to make that the center of my lair. I decided to be as circumspect as possible, so instead of creating my lair above the ground, I decided to build it underground and leave as little signs of my swarm above the ground. If my lair was discovered, the abandoned house would only point to the idea that a cape made the place his headquarters.

The problem was that if I wanted to hurry the construction of my lair, I needed more insects close and around it, and I needed them there on a permanent basis. With my power, I could easily feed and house more bugs than an area could support.

The greatest obstacle was that it was winter, but that was what my preparations were for. Fortunately for me, Brockton Bay was warm. Thanks to its geography, it had very mild winters and comfortably warm summers. Even so, given that it was the end of January, I still had to make some preparations for the cold.

I walked for about fifteen hundred feet. That distance was well outside the range I had if I were in my house. I chose the biggest ant nests I could find, grabbed all of the workers, soldiers and had the queen carried to the surface. They all climbed inside my backpack and gathered into a ball. After I visited ten nests, I went toward my future lair and found a spot close to it in a discrete place.

I took out my small shovel and dug a deep hole, put a bag of hot water in the hole to provide some heat, a sweet water bag to provide a quick nourishment source, dumped one of the queens and its subjects inside the hole, two wool socks to provide insulation, some cardboard to provide some structural integrity and then I covered the new nest entirely.

As I walked to the next future nest, I ordered the new hive to begin creating a new home for themselves.

**x-x-x**

In the afternoon, I walked around to find black widow spiders. They were highly venomous, but could create one of the best spider silk. I would have preferred to gather them together, but their aggression and territoriality made that impossible to keep them together if I was not there to control them.

For now, I couldn't use them properly. That didn't mean that I did not have plans for them. I modified their instincts and had them mate and lay eggs as if it was summer. Next, I had other insects go into the spiders' nests and let themselves be covered in silk.

They would not need to hunt, my power would take care of that.

**x-x-x**

In the next following weeks, I continued planting new nests, feeding them and changing the bags of hot water as they cooled.

As time passed they enlarged their nests and started to dig deeper and towards a point: two dozen feet below the abandoned house.

Dozens of ant nests begun to work all day toward the same purpose. With my will conducting them, they worked even more efficiently than they normally would. Their paths were straight, not the trial and error zigzag lines that their scent instinctually drove them to. When something was too heavy, I instantly sent enough ants so that work was most efficient.

At the end of February, the weather started to warm up and I stopped my delivery of warm water and food. Instead, I organized cockroaches to grab food from dumpsters and transport them to the ant nests and transport away the dirt that the ants excavated.

At the beginning of March, I managed to create a few chambers deep inside each ant nest. Each chamber had a small enough entrance that it could be easily barricaded. I went out and gathered more ants - this time, workers only. Each of the new worker swarm would be permanently based in one of the chambers. The queen-less workers went on to dig toward the future center of my lair, while the other ants maintained their nests, dragged out all of the excavated dirt and moved in food from the roaches. The cockroaches continued to gather food by day and in the cover of darkness, bring food to the ants and move away the excavated dirt.

At night, I sent the queen-less ants into torpor in their chambers and closed them from the queens' nests so they wouldn't fight each other while I slept.

As beetles started to come out, I begun to co-opt them into digging and the transport of the excavated dirt while the queen-less ants concentrated more on creating the reinforced walls of the lair.

By the end of March, I could not believe how far I've came with my lair. All of my ant nests were now connected through a network of thick passages. Regularly, the passages had lateral veins that went into big chambers.

The big chambers - I called them assembly chambers - had a radius of one to two feet. In their walls were carved smaller chambers that could be easily be closed by ants.

The smaller chambers were bedrooms for the black widows. While I slept or was outside their range, they would be closed inside the bedroom chambers. Black widows are highly territorial and without that precaution, they would attack not only the ants, but each other as well. When I was controlling them, I could mass produce spider silk clothes and costumes. The rest of the time, they would be safe inside their bedrooms.

"Mass production, fuck yeah."

**x-x-x**

I woke up giddy with enthusiasm. Yesterday, I spent the day by moving around and collecting black widows. I had thousands upon thousands of black widows in my assembly chambers. Based on the size of the rooms, some had a hundred spiders, but the bigger ones had up to five hundred. In the next days, I'd continue to gather more spiders. But until then, I'd continue with my usual development of my lair in the background while I concentrated on creating my suit.

I stood up naked in the middle of my room and a few hundred normal spiders rushed inside. They crawled all over me and I knew exactly the shape of my body and the shape of my future costume. I was so excited about it, that I remembered that bugs directly on my skin gave me the creeps only after the spiders crawled off me.

At my command, ants freed the black widows, which rushed in the assembly rooms. First they begun to build scaffolding out of their silk so they could all navigate the room, and then, they begun to weave the fabric of my costume.

Other chambers begun to assemble my armor sections. They would be made out of layered shells and exoskeletons and then reinforced with dragline silk.

x-x-x

Before the end of the day, everything was done. I had to wait two more hours for darkness to fall. When it was finally time, I rolled the fabric and armor pieces and had beetles carry them through the tunnels of my lair and up, toward the abandoned house above. Fortunately, I've had a thick enough passage for even the biggest armor piece. Once it was all up, I sneaked in the building and put it all in my backpack.

Once I was back in my room, I took the costume out of my backpack and admired it for the first time with my own eyes. The fabric was of a dirty yellow-gray color and the armor sections wound up dark mottled brown-gray. Tomorrow morning, I'd have to die the fabric and paint the armor. Something dark gray, perhaps.

I wished I could tell someone. Perhaps I could.

Then, I could also do something to repay her. Quickly I went downstairs and grabbed the phone. I dialed the number Panacea gave me.

"Yes?" a tired voice asked.

Was this a bad time? Well, maybe I can get her to take a little time off from her work. "Hi Amy," I said cheerfully. "This is Taylor, we met in January."

"Oh, yes, I remember you, Taylor," her voice was a bit more cheerful. "How are you doing? Did you take my advice?"

"Yeah. I'm doing much better, now. Thank you again, by the way. You probably saved my sanity, if not my life."

"Good, I'm glad for you, Taylor."

"Thanks, Amy. Umm, I know you're busy, but would you mind if we met up?" At Amy's silence, I continued rapidly. "That is if you are not too busy. It's nothing critical, but you said that we could talk again and..."

"I'd like that," the healer interrupted me.

"Is the day after tomorrow, Saturday, fine for you?"

"Sure," she said. "Saturday, ten in the morning, the Boardwalk at the Ferry Station North?"

"Perfect," I said. "See you Saturday."

"See you," Amy said before ended the call.

Now, I wondered... how exactly would I go about making white fabric?

**x-x-x**

**Author's Note**: Damn, even for the little I put here, there was quite a bit of research I had to go through.


	3. Preparation 1-2

**Preparation 1.2**.

**x-x-x**

**April 2 2011. **

Saturday morning, after my workout routine, I took a shower and dressed for my meeting with Amy. I verified that everything was fine with my swarm and took out my suit a final time.

Yesterday's work had gone well, the dying of the fabric and the painting of the armor had gone perfectly. I'd also added the final piece to my suit after the dyeing was done: two yellow tinted lenses for my eyes to see through.

I've also gotten supplies for my future needs in costume making. Fortunately, all of my purchases had been pretty cheap. I've bought enough buttons, elastic bands, dies and chemicals for at least a week of work.

With a final admiring look at the costume, I put it in a box and hid it in my closet and then went downstairs.

"Morning dad," I said to my father.

Danny was having a coffee while reading the newspaper. "Morning Taylor," he glanced away from his paper and blinked at me. "You're looking cheerful today. Going out?"

"Yup, I'm meeting someone," I said. "On the Boardwalk," I added, knowing that he'll feel better if I went in the safest part of the city.

He smiled. "You're having a date?"

"Uh... what?" I gaped at him.

"Well, It's Saturday, you're more cheerful than I've seen you in a long time and you're going on the Boardwalk - a good place for a date. And finally, I can't remember the last time you dressed up so nice for something."

I could feel my face redden in embarrassment. What with Emma's bullying campaign, I wasn't really in the mood for any kind of high school romance. Before high school, I've never been interested in anyone. I was happy enough at the time because I thought I had a good friend in Emma and I figured I wouldn't worry about boys and dating until high school. I didn't care about it too much besides the few small pangs of jealousy I had when every boy was more interested in Emma and not me. Even now, I can be rational enough to realize that Emma is quite beautiful, while I am still skin and bones with little to no bosom. I still have hope though. I do take after mom a lot, and I do look a lot like her when she was my age. Even if I grew to be half as beautiful as her, I would be happy.

"Dad, It's not a date." I said, trying to erase the embarrassment on my face. "Amy is just a friend. We're just going to hang out for a few hours. She'll probably come home with me and we're going to hang out for a bit."

"Oh, I see," he said with a disappointed tone. "I was hoping you'd bring home a boy for me to threaten. It's been my dream since you were born."

"Dad!" I giggled. He probably was. While dad was a bit on the small side, I knew he could get pretty scary.

"Well, have fun I guess," he said. "I have to go to work today, so I'll probably miss your friend." Danny gave me a few bills. "Have fun, shopping... or whatever you girls do."

"Okay, bye dad."

As I walked out of the house, I couldn't help myself to skipping for a few paces. Life was good. Things were getting better between dad and myself. I had my suit and I was going to see a friend.

Hmm, maybe I was a bit presumptuous in calling Amy a friend. I barely knew her, after all. But something told me that she was in need of a friend just as much as I was.

**x-x-x**

I was waiting for Amy at the Ferry station when I saw her. She was wearing a white, knee length dress with a demure shirt of the same color. Her eyes were almost hidden by a cute white hat. I turned my gaze toward her legs to see if the trend continued there as well. It sure was: white ballet flats.

"So, you like white," I said as I approached her.

Amy looked up and down at my own clothes. "And you prefer black, I see."

True enough, I was wearing all black: black shoes, black skintight pants, black shirt and a light black jacket. I liked how they looked on me. Maybe I'll have my spiders make something just like this.

"Well, we do make quite a pair," I said. "You're white, and pure, and cute," I glanced around to make sure no one was near, "and can bring back people from the brink of death with but a touch." I put a hand on my chest and gave her a small bow of my head. "While I," I paused and lowered my voice, trying to whisper sinisterly, "am dark, and scary, and just the skittering of my minions give people nightmares."

Amy giggled and hugged me. "That's not true." She hugged me harder.

"Meh, It's fine," I returned the hug. "I'm fine with things as they are."

After she let go, we begun to walk toward the Boardwalk. "Would you like to hang out for a few hours?" I asked. "If you're not busy, that is."

"I'd like to," Amy said. "My sister says I work too much. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I thought we'd hang out for a bit. Maybe watch one of those Earth Aleph movies, eat something. Then... I'd like you to come by my home, if that's ok. I want to show you my costume."

"Sure. That sounds great," Amy said.

**x-x-x**

When we arrived at the cinema, I started to look around at the movie posters. "Any preference?" I asked.

Amy wondered around, skipping romantic movies, comedies and action movies. She stopped in front of a poster with a giant robot as tall as the buildings in the background.

"Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance," I read the title. "Want to watch this one?"

"I don't know," Amy said. "It's probably going to be depressing. My sister hated the first movie, but I really liked it. I saw a lot of myself in some of the characters." The healer hunched on herself, "I saw people I know in others."

"Well, we'll get tickets for it then."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "It's an anime about some kind of weird Endbringer-like beings and psychologically damaged child soldiers with the power to pilot giant robots."

"Well," I said. "That does sound a bit too close to home. You've made me curious, though. Let's go get tickets... and until the movie starts. Fill me in on what happened in the first movie?"

**x-x-x**

Amy was right.

The movie was depressing.

When one of the good robots started to eat the redhead's robot, Amy started to cry. I wanted to murder the bastard who forced it. I couldn't. Instead, I held Amy's hand, who after a moment, put her head on my shoulder and continued to cry softly. I hugged her and patted her back until she stopped crying. I gave her a napkin and let the healer dry her eyes while I rubbed her back.

When she calmed, she didn't shift back to her seat and I let her keep her position. Remembering back on her words about the characters and how they reminded her of herself and people she knew, I started to get worried.

Something is wrong in the state of Denmark... or in this case, New Wave.

By the end of the movie, I was presently surprised by its ending. "Wow."

Amy smiled from my shoulder. She had other tears, but this time, I was sure they were happy tears.

When we stood up, I clasped Amy's hand and didn't let go. "Let's go get something to eat. This movie made me hungry."

Amy chose a pizza place she said was good and we stood to a table in a private corner. We ordered a pizza and hot tea for both of us.

"I loved the movie," I said braking our comfortable silence. The waitress brought the tea and I thanked her with a smile.

"Me too," Amy said. "The ending was beautiful."

I sipped my tea and nodded. "I thought so too. I loved that they both realized that they had each other."

"That they had something precious in the other," Amy added. "Even If the world is harsh and cruel in that moment they were... happy."

I like the sentiment. "Just one other person," I said. "If you find that one person, that is enough. I liked that."

**x-x-x**

When we arrived home, I rushed the healer up to my room.

"Dad's not home," I said after I checked with my swarm. "So we won't get interrupted."

Amy glanced around my room and looked around. She took a dainty seat on my bed and clasped her hands on her knees. "You haven't told him?"

"No," I shook my head. "I don't want him involved in this. If he knew, he'd be sick with worry. And he wouldn't like my plans."

"I think that speaks well of him," Amy said.

"I know. He's a bit socially awkward. Though," I smiled self-deprecatingly, "so am I. He doesn't show emotion, but I've always known that he loves me. Anyway, I didn't invite you here to talk about my dad." I went to my closet and took out the box with my costume in it. I put the box on the bed, next to Amy, opened it and then started to take off my clothes.

"What are you doing?" the healer squeaked. Her face reddened as she shyly turned her head away from me.

I paused as I was about to take off my pants. "Changing into my costume?"

"Oh, of course," she said. "Warn me next time."

Amy's eyes were everywhere except on me while I was busy disrobing. In the end, she fixed her gaze on my costume. She touched the skin-suit and gave a little gasp of surprise. "It feels so soft." She glanced at me, saw me in only my bra and panties and blushed anew.

"It is. I was thinking about making my civilian clothes from spider silk as well." I started to put on my costume: first the spider silk part and then, the armor sections. After I was done, I make a pirouette. "Well? How does it look?"

"Beautiful," Amy whispered. "You made all this by yourself?"

"Yeah," I said with pride. "It's light, cool in summer and warm in winter, doesn't burn, doesn't conduct energy and laughs at knife stabs. I haven't tried bullets, but I think that even with just the fabric, it will stop normal bullets. With the armor sections on, it will give me even better protection."

Amy withdrew her hand. "This is an excellent costume, Taylor. I'd say that its better than most. Certainly better than anything else of its weight that I've heard about."

"Really? How do you think it compares to your costume?" I asked.

"With mine?" Amy asked. "Well, this is certainly better than mine. My costume is made of normal fabric, after all."

I gaped at her. "What?" How could her costume be so mundane? "Why would you have something like that? Shouldn't you have some overpowered thing made out of some exotic tinker material?"

"I don't have access to something like that."

"You should!" I said. I was outraged. She was fucking Panacea. How could she have such a shitty costume?

"I'm not a frontline combatant, Taylor," she said calmly. "I don't get into fights. I generally stay well behind the lines, so I don't need protection. And when I do, my sister can protect me."

"I get that you are not a frontline combatant," I said patiently. "But are you honestly telling me that you've never been in any danger until now?"

"Well, no," the healer admitted. "It happened a few times, but my sister was always there to protect me."

"That's no reason not to have an awesome suit," I said stubbornly. "I mean, you should be able to afford it, right?"

"I don't know," Amy said. "Good costumes are really expensive. Something like you have would be at least fifty thousand dollars, maybe even more."

Well, that was quite a bit, I thought. At my current speed, I could easily make one costume per day. That would mean almost eighteen million dollars a year, and that was only at my current production level and with my current type of spiders. I was going to be filthy, stinking, rich. Amy though, given her powers, could be a billionaire if she wanted to. She was way too kind. "I know you don't take money from the people you heal, but hasn't the PRT given you some form of payment? You go help them all the time, right? Didn't they think to have one of their tinkers make you something?"

"Umm... No?"

"So after all you do, you don't receive some form of payment from anyone?"

"I told you Taylor, I don't accept money for my healing. They know that."

"Maybe," I said. "But they still profit quite a bit off you. Having someone with your power is just a step below having another one of the Triumvirate. The PRT being able to call on you to heal their capes is hugely important for them. They really should do something nice for you."

"Maybe," Amy still looked unconvinced. "But the facts still remain. I don't accept money from my healing and I don't fight. So, there's no reason for people to think I would need a better costume."

"Fine," I said. "Then I'll make you one."

"What? Taylor, no, there's no need."

"Maybe not, but I don't care," I said stubbornly. "I was already thinking about making you some civilian clothes and maybe a backup costume in my free time."

"You don't have to."

"I know Amy. I want to. If I don't I'll worry myself sick that some crazy gangbanger is going to shoot you in the back."

"Taylor, you don't need to trouble yourself with this. I know that a suit is a lot of work and..."

"Please Amy," I interrupted her. "It's actually not that hard. I can get my spiders to make the costume even as I'm doing something else."

"Really?" she sounded doubtful.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of multitasking I am capable of. Trust me on this. It won't be hard. Besides, I really need the practice. So, please, can I make you a costume?"

"Very well," Amy sighed. "You win."

"Great. I'll need to take your measurements."

"Ok, what do I need to do?"

I smirked at the healer. "I'll need to cover you in spiders."

"W-what?" she stuttered. "You're joking."

"Afraid not," I said. "I can probably take your measurements well enough without the spiders, but if I want a perfect three-dimensional model of your body, I'll need the spiders. If you want, we can do it without the spiders, but it won't be as good a fit as with them."

Amy nodded. "If you think it is best, we'll do that."

"Good." Let me change back out of the costume first. After I changed back into my civilian clothes, I called a wave of spiders, which climbed through my window and gathered in lines.

Her eyes were wide at the sight. "So many."

I took Amy's hands and helped her to her feet. "Don't worry, they won't hurt you," I told Amy. "I promise."

"Okay."

I ordered the spiders to climb on Amy. I had them move orderly and touch her with only their legs. Amy was surprisingly calm about it. She stood in front of me, holding my hands, calmly looking in my eyes.

When I was done, Amy took a deep breath and smiled. "Well, that wasn't too hard. You took your measurements the same way?"

"Yes," I said, "except I was almost naked. Given that what I am making for you won't be skintight, I figured this would be enough."

**x-x-x **

We talked for an hour more, talking about cape life and general things I wasn't too experiences to know of. When it was time to go, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. It's been a long time since I had a talk with a friend. It felt really nice.

I walked her back to the place we met, and waited from afar until Glory Girl literally dropped from the sky. The flying hero talked easily with Panacea. It was easy to recognize that they cared deeply for each other. If there was trouble with her family, it probably wasn't with her sister.

**x-x-x**

**Author's Note**: I was looking for a movie that was released in early 2011, (for the pseudo-date,) when I saw that "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance" fit. I then realized that Amy could see herself in two of the main characters and the other anime characters could be easily compared to the people on her life. Amy herself like a mix of Shinji and Rei; Glory Girl - Asuka, and Carol, Amy's mom - as Gendo Ikari.

Evangelion 2.0 was really good; as good as 3 was bad.


	4. Preparation 1-3

**Preparation 1.3**.

**x-x-x**

**April 2 2011. **

After I returned from walking Amy, I started to work on the healer's new wardrobe. I may have implied that I'd only make her a costume and maybe a few casual civilian clothes, and I may have obfuscated exactly how much it would take, but I was sure that she'd like my gift and wouldn't be too upset. I was honest enough to realize that given how awesome her power was, I wanted to impress her as well.

I just couldn't believe how little self esteem she had. I recognized it in her because it had been my constant companion ever since Emma turned on me. It only stopped when the healer showed me how to break free from the chains of my suffering. For the first time since my mother died, I was content, even happy. This was all thanks to Amy.

If she hadn't been there, would I have continued to go to school? Would I have snapped? Would've I even had the notion of building my lair?

I didn't know, but I am certain that without her help, I would now be in a much worse spot. That is why, as she helped me, I want to help her as well.

I'd make her a whole new wardrobe. If no one else showed their appreciation for Panacea's work and sacrifices, I would do my best to make it up for all of it.

**x-x-x**

My father came home at six, as I was about to finish making dinner. "Hey dad," I chirped happily. "How was work?"

"As expected," he sighed. "Work is hard to find. Two more of the guys started to work for villains."

"Oh." My happiness dampened. "I'm sorry."

"It can't be helped. But hey, at least they didn't go to the Merchants," he said, trying to be optimist.

At the name of the most despicable of the gangs, I grimaced in disgust. The Merchants were the scum of the scum. Sure, the other two major gangs were despicable, but at least they had a few lines that they did not cross... most of the time. The merchants however, were the worst.

It was not uncommon to hear of a young girl being kidnapped, gang raped, addicted and forced into sexual slavery. Boys as well, though that was rare. Generally, the worst boys dealt with was being robbed, given a light beating, doped and left in a dark alley. Those that did not live in Merchant territory would learn to stay the fuck out of their way, if they didn't want to become Merchants or addicts.

As a reaction, quite a few of the boys and some of the girls joined one of the other gangs. The merchants, while the lowest form of scum, were the weakest of the three major gangs of Brockton Bay, so they didn't mess with the ABB or the Empire. Unless they weren't too drugged up, that is.

"How about you, Taylor. Had fun with your new friend?"

"Yes," I said with a soft smile. "It's been some time..." I trailed off, "since things were... good."

"I'm glad, Taylor," he said. "You should see your new friend more often, then."

"I will."

**x-x-x**

I waited until the middle of the night and checked that my dad was asleep before changing into my costume. I got a small knife in a sheath on my thigh and two sets of EpiPens in the outer section of armor that was over my spine. I put most of my bugs to sleep and then sneaked out, through the window of my bedroom.

I walked for a minute, then ducked behind a tree where an entrance to my lair was located. A wave of bugs came out, carrying threads of silk strong enough to lift an adult man, but light enough to be carried by my flying bugs. Half the threads were carried into the sky, while the other half was carried into the back compartment of my suit.

I decided to head out towards Merchant territory. If I was going to start being a hero, I was going to go easy at first. The Merchants only had a few capes, all of them vulnerable to my powers. Their non-cape thugs, weren't that competent or well organized.

First, I'd get familiarized with patrolling. I didn't want to get involved into a cape fight before I got some experience under the belt and improved my combat power.

As I slowly sneaked through the shadows, gathering bugs, I tried to concentrate on the senses of my swarm. I could feel what they felt, but there were two senses I had a great deal of problems with: sight and hearing. By now, I was easily able to use the other senses, like smell, touch, taste and I knew to the millimeter where each insect was in relation to me.

Sight and hearing however, had given me so many problems while I was accustoming with my new senses, that I was forced to severely dampen them. I was able to use them on a limited scale: I could distinguish how loud a sound was, I could sense its general pitch, but not anything more. In the case of sight, it was even worse. I could distinguish the amount of light a bug saw, and I could sense movement, but I could not distinguish colors or see shapes. It was all garbled information.

Giving up on seeing as a lost cause for now, I concentrated on sound instead. In the background, I was gathering bugs to me. Flyers were roaming above me, fire ants were being lifted by fliers and spiders were heading towards my direction. I didn't plan to use the poisonous spiders on my patrol, but I'd keep them with me just in case. The useful spiders, the widows would be put to work in the lair after I returned from patrolling.

I could feel people from place to place, but I felt no frantic movement or threatening postures to denote that any of them were in trouble.

I walked like that for more than half an hour, until, at the edge of my control, I heard high pitched screams with my swarm. I headed at a run in its direction and gave new orders to my bugs. As I approached the location of the potential trouble, I started to hear what was going on with my own hearing. There was a woman in serious trouble inside a dark, back alley. She was cornered at its dead end by three thugs, who were advancing ominously on her.

The swarm was ready. I stepped into the alley and saw two men holding down a young woman, while the third one was in the process of dropping his pants.

With a mental command, flyers dive bombed the rapist scum. Hundreds of fire ants dropped on the men and at my command, they bit.

The thugs scrambled away, tried to throw off the ants, but I continued my attack. The man who had his pants down suffered some bites in the lower parts of his body and was rolling on the ground in pain.

One of the other thugs saw me and went for something inside his jacket. He drew a gun, but more ants bit into his hand. The gun dropped down.

Right now, I wished I had a stun gun. It would have made things much easier. I'd have to use what resources I had instead, so I had the flyers with my silk threads zip towards the three men. The third was rolling on the ground, so there was nothing they could really do, but the first two were still on their feet, feebly trying to ward off the swarm of flyers around them.

My bugs flew around the two men, encircling them in threads and making knots. The flyers did not have the strength to tighten the threads, but they could tie them more and more tightly with each new knot.

The two men collapsed to the ground, barely able to move and I went for the third. He was in a fetal position and I gave him a powerful kick in the shoulder, making him roll belly down. In a flash, I grabbed his hands and I drew them behind his back. Three flyers buzzed fast around the hands, tying them in silk, while I was forcing them together. After that was done, I did the same with the legs then went to finish securing the first two thugs.

When I was done, I straightened and looked at the woman. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Y-yes." the woman nodded, still gaping. "Thank you. If you didn't..." she shuddered, hugged herself and looked down. Her attention now dragged at the state of her ripped clothing. She tried to cover herself the best she could.

"You're safe now, ma'am. Do you have a phone?"

"I did, but," she waved a hand at the dark alley, "while I was trying to call for help, they flung it somewhere. I heard it break."

Damn, I needed a phone of my own. More than one, probably. I glanced at the thugs and went to check if they had one. I found one and handed it to the woman. "Here, you can go out on the street and call 911."

"Without you?" she asked fearfully.

I waved my hands and two swarms in the rough form of a human dropped at her sides. "These will keep you safe. I'll stay around until the cops show up. I also need to check up on these bastards to make sure they don't need an EpiPen and to finish securing them."

The woman nodded and headed out of the alley, with two bodyguard swarms at her sides.

I checked the three men. They were in no health danger, and were well enough secured. My bugs were still on them, some of them inside their clothing and I noticed the placement of weapons and wallets. I disarmed them and thought about the wallets. Heroes were not supposed to steel from gangs and villains, but I was in need for some quick cash. I wasn't going to ask Amy for money for her wardrobe and it would take some time to find some clients for my costumes.

I took the thugs wallets. The first two had only a few dollars each, but the third had over three hundred. I pocketed the cash and put the wallets back.

I wondered if I should wait for the police, but I decided that I didn't want to be carted away if someone decided that they had a problem with my takedown.

I need an exit strategy. I looked around and saw that the right building in the alley was just two floors tall. I needed a ladder and gave the orders.

While my ladder was being constructed, I grabbed the three men and moved them into a line, their heads away from the back of the alley. I put their knives and guns in plain sight, ten feet in front of them.

Once I was done, I had my flyers put one end of the improvised ladder around a bar of metal on the roof.

I climbed up, grabbed the ladder, tied it down at the other end of the building, climbed down and then I walked off. I stopped two blocks away, to make sure that the woman I saved was fine.

Five minutes later, two PRT vans stopped near the woman.

Well now, I wondered, how was I going to do my exit? Quiet or impressive? More importantly, how should I present my powers? While I was a Master, I could also be confused with a Changer. Misrepresenting my actual power might prove invaluable. My opponents would think that I was creating bugs and using them at range, and not that I am controlling any bug in my range.

I honestly didn't know which one was less creepy.

I should use any advantage I have for now, so maybe confusing people on my abilities was better. Besides, I could always set the record straight in the future, if I had to.

Pretending to be a Changer it is then.

With a command, I ordered my swarm to go into the alley, then exit in a cloud of roiling bugs. The PRT officers scrambled back and went to their weapons. I stopped my swarm in front of the woman and ordered the two swarms that were guarding her to join the larger swarm. I formed a humanoid figure and pointed into the alley with it.

I waited five seconds like that, and then, the swarm exploded into streams of bugs that flew upwards.

Well, I think that's enough excitement for the night. Time to go home.

On my way back, I took a longer route. I dispersed the non fliers, except the black widows, of course, and started to gather more widows. To hurry the time it took the spiders to get to me, I had my flyers grab them and land them on me.

I arrived home at 03:00, moved my black widows into their new homes, changed and went into a deep sleep.

**x-x-x**

Next morning, before sunrise, I was still exhausted, but I decided to still go on my run. I wandered off and searched for more black widows. An hour later, when I was back in my room, the spiders moved from my backpack and headed toward the nearest lair entrance while I went to shower.

I went down, had a good breakfast with dad and went back to my room. I crawled into bed and looked at the clock. It was only eight. With all the new bugs, I now had over twelve thousand black widows working in my Assembly Chambers.

I had five Chambers each where I had 500 spiders, the same number of Chambers for the ones that held 400 and 300 spiders, twenty chambers with 200 widows and finally, forty more chambers for 100 spiders. The spiders worked in shifts: those with full spinnerets would work while the others would feed, rest and recover.

I was too tired to do anything else with my body. I'd rest for a while. Maybe I'd take a nap at lunch...

**x-x-x**

I suddenly blinked my eyes. I fell asleep! My black widows!

Frantically, I looked at the state of my silk weavers. They're alive, I thought in surprise and relief. I could feel that a few of my black widows were dead. Not many though, a little over a hundred of the territorial spiders were dead, most of them from the spiders I collected this morning. The rest of the bugs: my digger beetles, my worker ants, the gatherer bugs, looked like they continued their work after I fell asleep.

Well, that's convenient.

In the Assembly Chambers that had finished work, the spiders were closed in their sleeping rooms, which had been blocked by the ants, as I would have done. In the others, they were busy continuing their work, as if I never fell asleep.

I need to look into this. Making my swarm obey my orders even as I was asleep had potential.

I looked at the clock. It was a little after ten. Time to go back to work. I put the Chambers that had stopped working on their next projects. By eleven, Panacea's first hooded cloak was done as well as three of the civilian shirts. By the end of the day, Amy's wardrobe would be done.

Tomorrow, I'd be busy with the whitening and putting the last touches to my work. Funnily, this last part of the job was turning to be a lot more troublesome than the actual weaving.

**x-x-x**

**Author's Notes**:

I actually created a spreadsheet and estimated the work for Skitters canon suit (around 120 hours of work with about 100 spiders). Complementary Skitter's costume is different: much thicker fabric, much thicker armor and the whole body is covered by the armor, so it took 4-5 times more work and the cost would be at about $65000. Right now, Skitter has 12000 spiders and she could make 3+ suits like hers in a day according to the spreadsheet.

I probably won't give too much raw data, but it will be useful for me as a tool of what she can do.

From Canon Skitter's suit, I extrapolated the cost of the suit in Complementary as well as the cost of different types of civilian clothes based on size of the person and thickness of the material. Skitter's gift for Amy's is really, really expensive.

Also, a funny review by tarrangar:

"why do you people always say somethings wrong with denmark its not perfect here but its lots better than places like the us"

I don't know if serious or joking. If serious, google: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark", if joking, I had a good long laugh at this.


	5. Preparation 1-4

**Preparation 1.4**.

**x-x-x**

**April 3 2011. **

**x-x-x**

At noon, when I got down to the kitchen, I saw a note from my dad on the fridge - he was off to work again, on a Sunday. After I ate my lunch I decided to go out. I had my bugs take a pause from their work while I took a trip out, to make use of the previous day's loot. I thought about letting my bugs keep working while I was out, but I did not know what would happen if they weren't in my control range. It would be best if I experimented with things on a smaller scale first. I didn't want to return and find only one champion black widow per Assembly Chamber.

I bought the most important items first: a stun gun, combat knife, pepper spray and flashlight at only ninety dollars. Next, I searched for a good pair of black combat boots and got one for a hundred and twenty dollars. Last, I got two mobile phones and a small digital recorder with the last of my liberated money and returned home.

After I got back, I ordered my swarm to start working again and put all of my new toys, except the recorder, out of sight.

I was going to improve with my power. The first thing was going to be hearing with the swarm.

I had a good idea on how to do it most efficiently: the same way people learned a foreign language.

Listening to random conversations and sounds with my swarm and trying to decipher them was like going to China and listening to people talk in the middle of a crowded city. While doing that, (listening to random things,) would not be detrimental, it would also not help to much. To learn a foreign language, people had to hear and repeat simple phrases. I was going to do the same with my power.

I hit start on the recorder and begun to speak. "One, two, three, four, five..."

Ten minutes later, I was done recording. I recorded numbers from one to one hundred, and simple statements, each repeated ten times.

I listened first without my power and a few times with the sound restrictions relaxed, but still not trying to process the information coming from the recorder's playback.

Over an hour after I started, I started the recording again, but left device in my room while I went downstairs to the kitchen. I listened carefully with my own senses, but I could not hear the recording. I opened myself fully to the audio sense of the bugs in my room and concentrated, trying to match the information I was getting to what I remembered from the recording.

A few minutes later, I thought I matched something.

"To be or not to be," I said and repeated a few more times. The sound changed and I recognized the next pattern. "That is the question."

Every ten minutes, after the tape ended, I briefly went upstairs to replay it.

I practiced until my dad came home. We had dinner and I went upstairs, while Danny watched the news on the TV. Well, by now I was able to keep up with my recording, but the real test would be something that I hadn't heard so many times before. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sounds coming from the TV.

The difference my training did was overwhelming. I was not quite able to follow most of the words, but I could easily differentiate between male and female voices and other types of sounds. Even if I didn't get everything, I was capable of following the general tone of the conversation.

I recognized two words: Simurg and Canberra - her latest target. The voices of the new anchors changed and I could feel the horror that this particular Endbringer brought to every person. The news changed, it was something more uplifting, something about a cape fight, victory for the heroes, no casualties and no collateral damages. I continued to listen, until my dad went to sleep and turned off the TV. I changed my focus to a neighbor's house, where there was a movie showing and continued to practice.

**x-x-x**

**April 4 2011. **

Next morning, as always, I went out before sunrise. I went to pick up the wardrobe I made for Amy. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit into my backpack, so I had to make two trips from an entrance to my Lair and back to my house.

Maybe I should make an entrance from the basement in my house, I thought.

After I moved the clothes from my backpack and into a plastic bag, I pushed through the basement window. I repeated the whole process for the other half of the clothes and went for my run. The clothes would be safe in the basement. My dad hadn't opened the basement in months.

After returning from my run, I ordered my swarm to start on making clothes for me and to spin silk thread - lots of it.

I showered and made breakfast for Danny. He was working too much and I wanted to make things a bit easier for him. Ever since I stopped going to school I took over most of the house work. It wasn't that much of a sacrifice for me. The truth was that I was a bit bored at home. If not for my need to stay close to the Lair, I would have spent most of my days at the library.

Once I made some money, I'd be able to buy a laptop and afford a good internet connection. I'd have the best of two worlds access to a computer and the internet while still being in range of my Lair.

Until then, I'd deal with what I have.

After my dad left for work, I brought the clothes from the basement and started on the last part of my work... and the most frustrating. It was amusing that I was getting close to spending more time on coloring and chemical treatments than on actually making them.

Fortunately the work was easy and I was done by noon. I only had to make the final touches, like putting the red cross on Panacea's costume. Now I had to wait for the clothes to dry.

I went to my room, made sure the drapes were covering my window and put silk lines all over my room. I put all the clothes on the lines. Now all I had to do was wait for them to dry.

"This is seriously annoying," I grumbled to myself. I need a place I can do this safely... and maybe some minions to do the grunt work would be nice.

I stared at the drying clothes and an idea popped into my mind. "Bees."

Slowly and inconspicuously, I brought bees into my room. I had them fly near the clothes and pushing air towards them. The flow of air helped to dry the clothes, so they'd be done by tonight.

**x-x-x**

At three in the afternoon, I called Amy from one of my new phones. I was only going to use this for talking with Amy and non-cape stuff. The other phone I bought was going to be used for my cape persona.

"Hey Amy,"

"Taylor? Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all," I said. "Can you talk for a few moments?"

"Sure, I'm done with classes and Vicky is going to pick me up in a few minutes. We can talk until then."

"Cool," I said. "So... you know about that thing I was getting for you? It's done."

"Already?"

"Yes, when would you like to get it? Somewhere and sometimes inconspicuous, if you can."

"Oh... all right. How about tonight? I'll be working at the hospital until eight. We can meet there."

"That's fine. I'll see you at eight."

**x-x-x**

By six, I'd made dinner for dad and wrote a message for him:

"Hey dad,

I'm out with Amy for a bit. I'll be home by 8-9.

You have dinned on the table.

Taylor."

I packed Amy's wardrobe in two bags and put my costume in my backpack. The clothes weren't heavy and I didn't look like I was carrying anything valuable.

I was not suspicious at all. It wasn't like I was carrying a quarter of a million dollars worth of clothes.

I headed out, stopped by the library for half an hour and then took the bus towards my destination. I stopped a station before the hospital and went into a park. I found a secluded spot, hunkered down and waited for the night.

Once it was completely dark, I changed into my costume, stashed my civilian clothes and the backpack behind some bushes and headed toward the hospital.

When I arrived at the hospital, I searched for Panacea. There weren't that many insects in the hospital, but there were enough for. From what I could understand through my bugs, she was almost done for the day.

I glanced around. The hospital building was surrounded by trees and greenery. Perfect place for our meeting.

I jumped the fence of the hospital, hid behind some trees and waited.

Five minutes later, Panacea exited the hospital. I sent a firefly towards her and hovered it at her eye level. I made it glow and circle in front of her.

The healer looked at the bug and cocked her head in curiosity.

The firefly circled away from the healer and moved towards me. Amy smiled and followed the lightning bug.

When we came face to face, she looked down at my sides, at her bags of clothing. "Is my costume so big that you need two bags for it?" 

"No, I just made a few other things," I replied.

"That's not a few," she said pointing at the bags. "I thought it would take weeks for one costume. But that... actually just what is inside those bags?"

"Your costume and a backup," I said airily, "and a few clothes for civilian use."

"I'm not sure if I should accept all of that. If it's all made of spider silk, then it is a small fortune."

I took a few steps forward and put my hands on her shoulders. "Amy," I said softly. "I was in a bad place when you healed me. Your help and advice changed my life for the better. You're the only person to have done that in a long time. I know we don't know each other that well, but I think of you as my only friend."

"I think you're my only friend as well," Amy said. "Besides my sister, you're my only friend as well."

I smiled behind my mask and gave her a hug. Her hugs were the best. "That's why I want you to accept my gift," I whispered in her ear. "If two days of work on my part will help keep you safe in your cape and civilian persona, it's more than worth it."

"All right," she conceded. The young healer tightened her arms around me. "Thank you."

I let the hug last for what seemed like an eternity, until I felt a disturbance with my flyers high in the air. There was something that was on a collision course with me. With my suit, I could take it, but Amy had a shitty costume.

I whirled around, and threw Amy from our embrace and toward a tree where she would have some kind of cover.

The enemy cape suddenly accelerated towards me and a wave of fear froze my body. My mind however, was not so easily defeated. A thick swarm of flying insects covered the cape, who panicked and swerved away from me, impacting the ground.

I was about to order my swarm to attack when Amy's voice interfered. "Stop," she said. "That's my sister."

I moved my swarm back from what I now realized was Glory Girl. I was beginning to realize what just happened. She saw us and thought I was hurting Amy. Given that she never met me, I can understand why she reacted so badly at my close proximity to her sister.

My fear changed toward a deep respect for the girl.

Victoria Dallon climbed to her feat, glowering at me. She was so brave, so...

Wait. My mind came to a full stop. What the hell is wrong with me. Why am I fangirling like this? Is she mind-fucking me? Was it her power? She was supposed to be an Alexandria package with an additional power: her aura. It was supposed to intimidate and even induce fear in villains.

Was that why I was struck by terror before? But, can she turn that fear into respect and awe? Given how she was glowering at me, If she was going to hit me with something, it would be intimidation, not awe. Maybe she is not fully in control of it? Possible. What changed to turn my fear into respect? It was Amy, she told me it was her sister and I understood that Glory Girl was just being protective toward her sister. So, perhaps this is what changed: my opinion towards her changed from a negative one into a positive one... and my fear turned into respect.

I didn't like that. I didn't like being mind-fucked. I didn't like her...

And the intimidation was back again, but now I was used to it and I was able to function correctly.

"Vicky," Amy said sternly, "this is my friend. No fighting. Now," the healer looked from me to her sister. "What happened?"

"I saw this creepy guy holding you," she pointed accusingly at me, "and flew down to make sure you weren't in danger. Then, all of these bugs covered me out of nowhere and I crashed down."

That lying bitch, I thought angrily. Well, I've decided that I don't like her at all. I don't care if I have to feel intimidated. Besides I don't think I could stomach being that in awe of someone that didn't deserve it.

Amy looked at me. "Well?" she asked patiently.

I smiled behind my mask. This girl is a saint. Also, even in these circumstances, she had enough awareness to not say my name in front of her sister. Come to think of it, she was so careful tonight; she never said my name.

I opened my mouth, hopeful that Amy wouldn't automatically take her sister's word over mine. I stopped though. If I continued to be friends with Amy, I'll eventually meet with her family in my civilian guise. If my cape identity had the same voice with my civilian identity, they'd notice it.

Could I change my voice? I looked at the swarm around me and decided to try.

"I felt something on a collision course with me." My voice overlapped with the thousand sounds of my swarm, creating a creepy alien voice. "I assumed that it was an attack and threw you away from me, where you would be safe from the impact and the fight that would have followed. When I did that, your sister increased her speed and put more power into her aura. I felt threatened and I covered her in my swarm. I believe that my swarm interfered with her senses, forcing her to crash into something else."

"I see," Amy said. She did not show any trace of surprise at the sound of my voice. "Vicky," she said patiently, "you should think more before acting. What if you crashed into my friend and me? We could have both been badly hurt. You realize that if you would have hit my friend, a good part of the impact would have hit me as well? You know I can't heal myself. Please be more careful."

Glory Girl shifted uncomfortably, as if only now realizing what could have happened. "Sorry," she said to her sister, who held her gaze. The flying cape turned towards me. "And I'm sorry as well," she told me grudgingly, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

"I am sorry as well," I told Glory Girl. I turned my attention fully toward Panacea. "And to you as well, Panacea," I said. "I acted before thinking. I hope my throw did not injure you."

The healer waved me off. "Don't worry. I know how to take a fall. I'm perfectly fine." Panacea walked towards me and gave me a hug. "Thanks again for your gift. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome," I said.

Amy grabbed her bags and went to her sister. "I'm done. We can go now."

Glory Girl looked at her sister's bags in confusion, but didn't say anything. She just hugged her sister and flew off.

**x-x-x**

That night, at eleven, I got a message from Amy. "My family wants to meet you..."

**x-x-x**

**Author's Note:** Next, we'll have a Panacea interlude. Most likely, it won't be the only one (with Panacea). Amy POV chapters will probably be a semi-regular thing.


	6. Preparation 1-5 Interlude - Panacea

**Preparation 1.5. Interlude - Panacea**

**x-x-x**

**April 4 2011. **

When Victoria was away from the hospital, she glanced at her sister. "So, mind telling me what this was about?"

"That was a friend who made me some clothes as thanks," Amy replied. "They're made out of spider silk. They're supposed to give a lot of protection for their weight."

"Spider silk? I've heard that it would be a good material for armor, but that there's no way to mass produce it. I guess that it would be classified like some sort of tinker material?" At Amy's nod, Glory Girl grinned. "Huh, that would be expensive as fuck. Is that creepy bug person a boy or a girl? Cause if it's a boy, that's a fine way to start wooing a girl."

Amy blushed. "Vicky," she chided, "it's not like that. It's only a gift from a friend to a friend. And also, I'm not telling you if it's a boy or a girl. You know the unwritten rules. You're not supposed to look into personal information."

"Come on, Ames," Victoria wheedled, "It's not like I asked you about his civilian identity."

"I know Vicky, but I'm not comfortable disclosing anything without permission."

"Fine," Glory Girl grumbled.

As soon as the two girls arrived home, the healer rushed to her room, closely followed by her sister. Amy opened one of the bags and found a replica of her costume. The girl threw off her mundane one and put on her new one. She ran her hands over it, hardly believing that Taylor made far more than this one costume in only two days. "So soft and light," Amy whispered.

Her sister grabbed her second costume from the bag and run her hands over it. "Wow. So this is..."

"Spider silk," Amy said. "It's immune to fire, electricity, knives and probably, to at least small caliber weapons fire."

Victoria looked again in the bag. "You've got some pants and shirts in here as well." She then grabbed the second bag and started to take out clothes. She took the first item of clothing. "Gloves," Victoria said, looking curiously at them. "Look at this," she showed the front of the gloves. "There's holes on the front side." The material at the base of the middle fingers was missing.

Amy put the gloves on, closing and opening her hands. "That's pretty smart," she said. "If I close my hands into fists, there's no loss in protection, but if I open them, the holes allow me to touch people without taking off the gloves."

Victoria grabbed the next item in the bag. "Another pair of gloves. Some scarves, socks," the girl said, pulling out clothes, but froze at what she saw next. She stared at her sister and grinned. "Panties and PJs."

Amy squeaked and tried to grab the bag away from her sister, but Vicky was faster, grabbing the bag and flowing up and away from her sister.

"And not only that," Victoria chortled. "Bras as well," she said, pulling a white item and whirling it around her index finger. "Exactly your size."

"Vicky," Amy said dangerously. "Don't make me chase you."

"Fine," the girl pouted. "That's okay... after all, I'm done." she pulled something else from the bag. "The final and winning item," she declared, "Pantyhose." Glory girl threw the clothing article at a red-faced Amy and landed on the bed.

Amy caught the item, trying to hide it to her chest.

"I got to ask," Victoria turned serious. "Doesn't this look a bit creepy? I mean, I understand the costume, the pants, shirts, gloves, socks and scarf. But the others? The PJs, panties, bras and pantyhose are kind of intimate."

"You don't have to worry, Vicky," Amy said. "My friend is kind of utilitarian and paranoid when it comes to protection. I'm pretty sure that the more... uh," the healer grasped for the word, "intimate pieces of clothing are just in case someone tried to attack me in my home."

"Really," Glory Girl said skeptically.

"Yes," Amy nodded emphatically. "When... my friend found out that my costume was mundane and provided no special protection, he..."

Victoria smirked at the male pronoun.

"... or she," Amy added, "was a bit outraged that I didn't have an expensive tinker costume and force shields."

"Sounds protective of you," Victoria said. "If he wasn't so creepy, I'd say it was cute." The blond girl glanced at the clothes and headed to the door. She opened and grinned at her sister. "Then again, if some guy gave me a whole wardrobe of tinker clothing, I might be interested."

**x-x-x**

Vicky closed the door behind her, leaving Amy to her thoughts.

Amy couldn't help herself but think at her sister's words. An image of Taylor and Vicky kissing popped in her mind. The healer had no idea what to even think about it.

On the one hand, it made her heart beat in excitement, on the other, it made her rage in jealousy. To make things even more confusing, she didn't know who she would be more jealous of.

Should she be jealous of Taylor, that she might have a chance with Vicky, when Amy's forbidden desire would never be realized? Or should it be the opposite, that Vicky would take away her only friend.

Until now, she had accepted it.

Mark - her father was never that emotionally close to her, but neither was he to Vicky. His depression made it hard for them to connect to them. When she was young, Mark's depression had been better, but he got worse and worse.

Carol was always a disapproving shadow. Nothing was good enough, no matter how hard she tried. Amy was always ignored, while Victoria...

Amy forcefully stopped her train of thought. Even if Carol loved Vicky... her real daughter, Amy was fine with it, because Vicky was always there for her, when Carol and Mark wasn't. When she was scared or afraid, when something happened, Amy could always go to her sister.

Since she got over her parents coldness, it was not hard for Amy to be accepting of the fact that everyone else loved her sister, and regarded her as only "Glory Girl's sister". The ones who were interested in her, were only interested in what her power could do for them. They cared only for Panacea, but never Amy.

Taylor however, was the only one to show interest in her beyond the getting healed part. She was the first person to actually try to repay her for her work. Even if Amy knew that heroes never expected to be rewarded for their actions, she found it heartwarming that Taylor put so much effort in helping her.

Everyone else expected her to be an automaton.

For the first time, Amy found an actual friend. And for the first time in a long time, the thought of another person being more interested in Glory Girl rather than her, was painful.

**x-x-x**

Half an hour later, Amy and her family were having a late dinner. Sometimes, the healer wondered why they even bothered.

Mark, simply went through the motions.

Amy herself, was always so tense that it was hard to make herself eat.

Carol, was going through the motions of being a family, but she could tell that she was truly interested only in Victoria.

Her sister Victoria was mostly unaware of how things stood and carried most of the conversation around the table.

But perhaps it isn't quite so bad, Amy thought. Vicky was always the heart of their dysfunctional family. She was able to draw Mark out of his funk for a time with more success than the rest of us. Her sister had an easy time of talking about her day or any subject that caught her fancy, like her latest breakup with her boyfriend.

This night unfortunately, Vicky chose another subject.

"... and you won't believe what happened when I went to pick up Amy."

Amy cringed, somehow knowing that she wasn't going to like what followed.

"Amy's finally got a suitor she hasn't rejected."

At Vicky's words, Carol pricked up a little. "Oh?" she waved at her daughter to continue.

"Yup," Victoria said with relish, "there was this creepy bug boy character at the hospital. He's a cape with bug powers who can make clothes out of spider silk. And check this out, you won't believe what he did: he gave Amy, not just a costume, but a backup and a whole wardrobe as well."

Amy's posture shrunk down at Carol's look of disapproval. Damn it Vicky, did she have to tell her about it like this? Did she have to tell her at all? If it was up to Amy, she wouldn't have even told her. Carol didn't pay enough attention to Amy's clothes to realize the difference to normal clothes. I should have realized that Vicky would have talked about this. I should have told her to keep quiet about it. But at least, she didn't tell her about the almost fight or what kind of clothes Taylor made for her.

"Amy," Carol frowned at her.

Damn it, I didn't even do anything bad, Amy thought to herself angrily. She straightened and took a deep breath. That's right I didn't do anything bad. "Yes?" Amy asked as calmly as she could.

"What exactly did you do in exchange for that kind of payment?"

Amy cringed at the unspoken words. It was pretty obvious for the healer that Carol wondered if Amy did something bad, something immoral or illegal.

"It was a gift," Amy said, "repayment for my healing."

Carol's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And who exactly is this person that he gave you such an extravagant... gift? What could you possibly heal that he repaid you with a full wardrobe of spider silk clothes?"

Amy's spine stiffened. "You know I can't tell you that. It is against the rules. I do not have his or her permission to disclose any information."

Carol's jaw tightened at Amy's words.

"Come on, Amy," Vicky whined, "at least tell us if it's a guy or girl."

"No," Amy said in an implacable tone.

Carol schooled her face into a blank mask. "Victoria, your sister is quite correct. If this... person wishes to remain anonymous, we shouldn't try to pry into it." Amy breathed a sigh of relief that Carol decided not to pry, but it was short lived. "However," Carol continued, "I cannot, in good consciousness, allow Amy to accept such an extravagant gift from an unknown parahuman. I'd like to meet this person to asserting if he... or she, is trustworthy."

**x-x-x**

Amy closed the door behind her and only then let a few tears fall. No amount of protestations from her could sway Carol's decision.

What hurt most was that Carol had all but admitted that she didn't trust Amy's judge of character; that at best, Amy could be tricked or ensnared into something bad and at worst, that Amy had already involved herself in something like that.

Knock, knock, Knock.

Amy quickly dried off her tears, recognizing her sister's knock. "Enter," she said.

Vicky shuffled inside. Her aura was like a bonfire and Amy had to force herself not to jump into her arms.

"Hey Amy... I'm sorry I brought it up with mom. I didn't think she would go all paranoid on us. I hope I didn't got you into trouble with your friend."

"No, it's fine," Amy was certain that Taylor wouldn't mind placating her family if she asked her to. "It was bound to come up at one point or another."

"So, you're not mad?" Victoria asked hopefully.

Her aura blazed over Amy and the healer forced her body to relax. "No, I'm fine."

"Great." Vicky gave her sister a quick hug. "Good night, sis."

"Night, Vicky."

Once Amy was alone again, she sent a message to Taylor. The healer changed in one of her new PJs and crawled into bed.

It was so comfortable, it felt so smooth that Amy's thoughts quickly changed their focus. The girl fell asleep with a smile, thinking of Taylor.

**x-x-x**

**Author's Note**: First, (but certainly not last,) Amy interlude. Next, Taylor meets Amy's family.


End file.
